PPRuNe Forums - Three more airbases to close?

PPRuNe Forums (https://www.pprune.org/)

- Military Aviation (https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation-57/)

- - Three more airbases to close? (https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/403264-three-more-airbases-close.html)

Pete, The Duchess of Kents Hospital still stands, slap bang in the middle of Catterick Garrison. Relocate to that and cut out that tortuous 17 mile journey each way with the associated travel costs.

BTW RAF Thorney Island appears to have slipped through the net here, and has Colerne been mentioned?

Tim McLelland

Quote:

Sirtoppamhat perhaps you misunderstood me? I don't think this would be the place to discuss the political abilities of either Portillo or Abbott. It's irrelevant what you or I think of them - my point was that they are both very experienced politicians who generally adopt almost diametrically opposing views on matters of policy. Therefore, when they both conclude that the carriers and F-35 are dead, we can also draw our own conclusions n'est ce pas?

No I didn't misunderstand the point you made at all. I think it is interesting that they have found something they agree on, but that doesn't make it any more valid a position in itself. The fact that these people are both 'professional politicians', if anything, reduces the force of their arguments.

STH

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkh51250 (Post 5473621)

Pete, The Duchess of Kents Hospital still stands, slap bang in the middle of Catterick Garrison. Relocate to that and cut out that tortuous 17 mile journey each way with the associated travel costs.

True,

However if the rumour has any basis, no doubt politics will come into play, plus according to one of the senior 'brown job' medico's at the MDHU Friarage, the investment required to fetch DKMH back upto modern standards would be huge (not what the bean counters would want to hear in these times).

Mind you, would there be enough people left in HM Forces to warrant having a hospital at all nowadays?. I'm thinking back to the days when just the RAF had Ely, Nocton Hall, Wroughton, Halton etc let alone the brown jobs and dark blues hospitals.

Pete

Marham and Honington,

Did they get it wrong a few years ago? Should Honington have been retained for Gr4's (Gr1's then) instead of Lossi as it's not that far from Marham. Bit late now, too many buildings, land-rovers etc, no ILS or lighting and who knows it may go pongo before too long as well (it's partly pongo already)
Another solution, move maintenance over to Cottesmore and squadrons to Marham? It will also be interesting to seee where the troops currently stationed in Germany will go. Even if the army reduces in size there will still plenty to re-house.

Quote:

So how do the Lossie Sqns manage to train for CAS if they are so badly placed?

They do stuff at Spadeadam and along the Scottish border, which you can also do from Marham or Cottesmore. Otherwise the FACs travel into the highlands and take up residence somewhere suitable for the Lossie sqns, putting them out of reach of southern-based CAS assets.

Quote:

I would have thought that at some point soon operating fast jets in the south east with airspace getting tighter

The local flying areas of Marham, Coningsby, Cottesmore and Lakenheath are indeed congested and bordered by controlled airspace. However, the point is that all these bases are within easy reach of Devon & Cornwall, Salisbury Plain, Wales, the MDAs, the Lakes, Northumberland, and all of southern Scotland. Therefore there is plenty of flexibility to go wherever the weather is suitable, and you can also go to the land forces wherever they happen to be training.

Quote:

I can't vouch for Lossiemouths' flying days lost due to weather from it's 2 runways, at Kinloss it is single figures

The problem is the parachute wind limit. The common stat about how Lossie and Kinloss are "Blue" more often than anywhere else doesn't tell the whole story - they can be "Blue" and gusting 50kts, they're still weathered out as far as FJ ops are concerned. Even if the airfields are OK, the winds over the mountains can easily go out of peacetime limits, and this curtails overland training. Such occurrences are much rarer down south.

Quote:

As for the geese, yes they are a hazard and we have good procedures to mitigate against them, but the more regular flying you do the better as they modify their flight paths, at the moment with erratic occasional aircraft they don't learn (well, a few did the hard way!).

Sounds like your score is Nimrod 3? - Geese 0. Unfortunately in recent history our score is Tornado 1 - Geese 1 and I'm sure nobody wants to try to regain the lead!